Today, just seven short days out from the kickoff of the SXSW Music Festival 2010, Spinner takes a look at New York band the Brought Low and their journey to Austin, Texas, plus more of our favorite interviews from bands around the world. Keep up with all of the showcasing band interviews we're posting on AOL Music's SXSW 2010 hub.



The Brought Low SXSW 2010 Interview
It's not hard to understand on first listen how the Brought Low have captured and maintained such a broad fan base over the past ten years.
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Midlake SXSW 2010 Interview
Formed in the late '90s by a group of jazz students at the University of North Texas, Midlake has come a long way from its jazz fusion roots.
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After meeting at a talent show at the University of Pennsylvania in 2000, Chicago-bred MC Naledge (born Jabari Evans) and DJ/Producer Double O (Michael Aguilar, of New Jersey) began making music together under the group name Kidz in the Hall. Currently on tour in promotion of their third album, Land of Make Believe (available March 9), the duo will make time to play two shows at SXSW. Spinner recently spoke with the Kidz about their musical evolution, the allure of free shwag and being the OGs of SXSW hip-hop.

Describe your sound in your own words.

Double O: I'd say that our sound is definitely nostalgic, and genuine. I think there's a realness and a soulfulness to our sound that makes it familiar to fans.

Naledge: It's a more updated version of everyman hip-hop; that's the only way I can describe it without talking too much. Futuristic everyman hip-hop.

How did Kidz in the Hall form?

Double O: We met at a talent show at the University of Pennsylvania back in 2000. Naledge was still in high school; I was already at Penn, and he was up there for a recruitment weekend. I thought he was dope as an MC, and as soon as he came to school we just got to working.

Carusella is a very passionate heavy indie-rock duo from Tel Aviv, Israel. Although they have been prominent in the Israeli music scene for several years and have toured Europe extensively, their first trip to what they consider their musical home is quickly approaching. Spinner recently spoke with Carusella about their band and their upcoming venture to SXSW.

I understand the two of you previously played together in another band. What led you to Carusella?

We played together with two other people, and we always felt like we had a special chemistry together. So we just started jamming alone. We saw that it worked good. For an Israeli band to travel -- to tour outside of Israel, it's easier for two people.

What's the meaning of your band's name and how did you come up with it?

It comes from the word carousel, but usually we say Carusella. We found out the meaning of the word in Latin. It means "little war." That's also the origin of the game. The game with horses -- in the past, people used to practice before the war. So we like the meaning of it being a little war and also a game, because we feel that as an Israeli band, for us to spread our music through the world and get to the US and to Europe, it's like a little war. We have to fight ourselves just to be able to do that, because it's not so easy to step out and fly and play a show everyday.

Artist: The Boxer Rebellion
Video: 'Flashing Red Light Means Go'
Highlight: The arena-ready band's soaring tune gets an impressive steampunk visual treatment.

Whether it's in English or Chinese, rock 'n roll is rock 'n roll, and the Beijing-based quartet P.K. 14 are at the forefront of China's underground rock circuit. After an inaugural visit last fall to the Mecca of their post-punk and New-Wave muses -- New York City -- the band is at it again with their shredding guitar riffs, unmerciful bass bombardment, and discontented lyrics. Spinner recently spoke with frontman Yang Haisong about his band and its plan for SXSW and America.

How would you describe your sound?

That little old thing called rock 'n' roll -- the one with electric guitars, bass, drums and amplified vocals -- churned through a Chinese dictionary.

Japan-based Omodaka is a collaborative project between core members Soichi Terada and Kanazawa Akko, and a revolving door of visual artists that fuses computerized monoliths, traditional Japanese folk and dissident stills and art pieces to create offbeat electronic paradigms. Since starting in 2001, the avant-garde collective has released seven EPs and a batch of singles on Terada's Far East Recordings label, which he created solely for that purpose. Terada and his crew will make their way Stateside for their first-ever stop at this year's SXSW. The 44-year-old Terada recently spoke with Spinner from his home in Tokyo about the meaning behind the project's name and the influence of computer science.

When and why did you form Omodaka?

It might be in 2001, when the first song was made and [we] began to try to make [the] music video.

In the comings and goings and running around to see the next big thing that defines SXSW, there are many artists who have "been there, done that" and prefer to keep it business as usual. Austin resident Ian "Mac" McLagan is one of those folks keeping to his usual playing schedule by joining a handful of showcases at SXSW 2010. The expat Brit, who was a member of the Small Faces and then the Faces with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, and who has backed the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne and so many more with his signature Hammond B3 sound, prefers to stay in the background and let his music be the draw.

You've played with some of the biggest stars in modern popular music, who have influenced generations of musicians. So what were some of your influences?

Well, it's because we didn't have any bluesmen in England. It's a strange thing. Someone asked me, "How come you found the blues; how did you latch on to it?" Really, the answer was because it was hard to find there. In England, there was no source, it was so alien, as soon as you heard, well, as soon as I heard it, I wanted to hear more, I wanted to know where it came from, I wanted to know everything about it, I bought books. You'd go to jazz records stores in the West End of London and you'd find a Jimmy Reed album and say, "Wow, I've got to get that!" My first Muddy Waters album, I had to order; I went to this little record shop near Heathrow Airport and said, "I want to buy Muddy Waters live at Newport," and the clerk said there was no such thing. He got out this telephone book of records, and there it was. But it wasn't for sale in England; he had to import it, so it took a month or so to get it. I'd keep going back and buying everything. I'd look through his book for things like Howlin' Wolf, and certainly there it was. And because they were hard to find, they meant so much more, and when those artist came to England you didn't miss the opportunity to catch them.

That must have been expensive. How did you pay for all those import records?

I had a paper route, delivering papers in the morning and groceries in the evening. I was in art school, which gave me money for paint and brushes, but I squandered it and spent more on beer and records than paints and brushes.